Hurricane names Florence and Michael retired, replacements chosen

Wednesday

The names will live in legend — Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Michael — but they will never be repeated.

Both were retired this week from the six-year rotating list of cyclone names by the World Meteorological Organization's Atlantic basin hurricane committee, which is meeting in Curaçao.

They will be replaced with Francine and Milton, which will first appear in 2024's name list.

Hurricane Florence, which hit the southeastern coast of North Carolina on Sept. 14, caused at least 51 deaths and caused severe flooding across the Carolinas and Virginia.

Hurricane Michael made landfall Oct. 10 near Mexico Beach in Florida's Panhandle as a strong Category 4 storm with 155-mph winds. It was the third most intense hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous U.S. based on central pressure. At least 45 deaths are blamed on the storm, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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No one is surprised by the retirements.

"Given both the historical rarity, intensity and impact, it's likely the name Michael will be retired from future use for Atlantic when a committee of the World Meteorological Organization convenes in spring 2019," wrote Jonathan Erdman, a meteorologist for Weather.com, an IBM company, the day of landfall. "This would be the third straight "M" hurricane to be retired, following Maria in 2017 and Matthew in 2016."

Last year, four names from the 2017 hurricane season — Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate — were retired.

Tropical cyclone names are selected by the WMO and are usually common names associated with the ethnicity of the basin affected by the storms. The names are on a six-year rotating list, with the 2019 list a repeat of 2013.

BOOKMARK: The Palm Beach Post's hurricane tracking map

"For example, in the Atlantic basin, the majority of storms have English names, but there are also a number of Hispanic-origin names as well as a few French names," said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen during an interview about why 2015's Hurricane Henri wasn't Hurricane Henry. "For the eastern North Pacific basin, the majority of names are of Hispanic origin, as the impacted countries are Mexico, Guatemala and other nations of Central America."

Hurricanes began getting names in 1950 based on the phonetic alphabet. That was abandoned in 1953 when hurricanes started being named after women only. In 1978, men's names were added.

Eighty-eight names have been retired from the Atlantic basin list since 1953.

There will never be another Hurricane Andrew, after the devastating 1992 Category 5 storm.

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Hurricane Joaquin is off the list after the 2015 storm killed 33 people on the cargo ship El Faro when it sank near Crooked Island in the Bahamas. Hurricanes Matthew and Otto were retired after the 2016 season, replaced with Martin and Owen.